Palmer grip

J started back at school last week. He is now in Year 1 and having to adjust to the realisation that he can no longer wander freely around the classroom. His new teacher is extremely good and very focused - and well up to the challenge of J!
Lara's report has gone into the school along with an accompanying letter - I await a response to this.
In the meantime J is back in the classroom and to his hated topics - reading and writing.
Reading is too much like hard work I suspect so I am in the process of making up the phonic sounds to make words with and am hoping that the penny will drop with J once we've practiced a bit more.

Writing is more of an issue as J still uses a very immature palmer grip to hold a pen or pencil. This makes it hard for him to control the marks he makes on paper (although he recently drew very fetching designs all over my laptop bag)! To add to his difficulties he is also left handed and this creates an added challenge.

Most children develop a palmer grip within the first year of life and this is used to great effect when grabbing hold of things they should not. J's finest moment was grabbing the breasts of a waitress in a cafe and saying "boobies" - a moment we wished the floor would swallow both of us.

By the age of 4 though, most children have developed the ability to hold a pen with a tripod grip using the thumb and two forefingers. This gives a good level of control when making marks on a page and is the basis for developing good handwriting skills. J does not have this skill or at least it does not come naturally to him. Occasionally he will hold the pencil in a tripod grip with great pride saying "look, I am holding my pen the way my teacher showed me" - he gets great praise for this but quickly reverts to the palmer grip which is obviously easier and more comfortable for him.

I have recently bought some pencil grips to help him but Lara (the OT) says to wait until she has assessed J further because there are many different pencil grips and she has lots for him to try in order to see what best suits him.

So in the meantime I will continue to give J pens and paper and allow him to have fun with drawing and put no pressure on him to write if he does not want to. I tread a fine line between encouraging him and putting him off. The school are doing the same and giving J small handwriting tasks which do not make him feel useless compared with his peers

J and his Vestibular Sense.

One of the senses J has problems with is his vestibular sense. The vestibular sense is tied up with the inner ear - the rather beautiful structure of which can be seen above. The inner ear is comprised of :

Three fluid filled semi-circular canals,
The vestibule
The cochlea ( shell shaped and the source for "can I have a word in your "shell like")

HOW IT ALL WORKS

The semi-circular canals contain tiny sensitive hair cells which detect movement and changes in the position of your head. This information is conveyed by the motion of fluid within the semi circular canals. As we move the motion of the fluid causes gelatin like lumps called cupulas to bend one way or the other, which in turn causes the hair cells to bend. The three semi circular canals are oriented at roughly 90º to each other, and so give you information in all three dimensions. So, if you were to close your eyes for a moment and tip your head back, you would know that your head is tilted even without having the visual input because your vestibular system provides that information.

HOW I THINK IT WORKS FOR J

If a child's vestibular system doesn't develop or integrate normally, they may be hypersensitive or hyposensitive to vestibular stimulation. If they are hypersensitive then they may have fearful reactions to ordinary childhood activities such as swinging on swings, running or jumping. On the other hand if a child is hyposensitive to vestibular stimulation (like J) they may well be constantly on the move in order to sense where they are in relationship to gravity. This explains to me why J sits and rocks at times while watching the television - the constant movement tells him where he is in space and gravity.

So in the normal course of events if you tip your head back with your eyes closed - you know where you are. J would experience this differently - he might wobble and become unbalanced when trying to perform such a task. In the same way I equally struggle with tasks like these. In relaxation exercises which ask for eyes to be closed I have to be seated on a chair or on the floor - standing with eyes closed does not come naturally and I feel unbalanced (and have been told I sway alarmingly). I guess I have SPD too - or have adapted to the SPD I had as a child. In the 1970s SPD wasn't known about in the UK - the best the various people who saw me (at the advice of teachers who were concerned about my activity levels and writing) could advise my Mum was that "children like your daughter have different brainwave patterns to other children"! J is a carbon copy of me according to my Mum so I have had several "lightbulb" moments with my reading about SPD and guess my vestibular system is not the best either.


When I observe J I am aware of a great deal of movement, even when he is seemingly stationary and concentrating upon a task there is activity. So sitting watching the television involves a regular need to move around or rock. This gives vital information to his brain about where his body is in space. I think that this is when I see J's vestibular problems most clearly as he unconsciously rocks. Likewise sitting at the computer involves standing up, sitting down, hopping from one foot to another, wriggling as well as opening and closing his mouth. During this time he may be completely zoned out and speaking to him will elicit no response. Interruption - either because the computer does something unexpected or an adult tells him it's time to come off the computer often elicits an aggressive response (usually a tantrum) but at school he cries.

I am watching J at the moment - he is actively playing, running up and down (a tiny 2 bed mobile home), dancing to music, rolling on the floor, jumping and spinning - totally active and stopping every now and then to observe himself in the reflective glass of the turned off television. He has a toy golf set which is being used as anything except a golf set - the golf clubs are "an axe" and he is "chopping down trees", they are "guns" and he is a "goody chasing after the baddies" - all normal stuff in fact. Now he is dancing again to Coldplay's new album and walking round and round in circles - enjoying the momentary dizziness although he tells me that "sometimes I don't get dizzy". A bit like a Great Dane J needs a good walk or run twice a day to help him use the pent up energy - if he doesn't have this he is quite impossible at bedtime!

So I await the results of Sensory Integration Therapy to see how I can support J and help him with overcoming the problems his vestibular sense causes him on a day to day basis. I will also be interested to see if there is improvement in the activity levels.
I have spoken to Lara - we begin on 1st September....

Butlins..was fantastic.

Butlins was fabulous fun and J had a great time trying out the various activities on offer.

Despite his little quirks which were very apparent at times especially in the presence of noises and sounds he found unbearable we had great fun.

J hears a sound he doesn't like and shows his usual reaction (hands over ears) which is apparently typical of children with sensory processing problems. J has been showing this reaction to certain noises since age 2 years.

Heights are NO problem for J as seen from this photo......

...and even worse this photo of the ride he loved most and on which I was compelled to accompany him due to his age and height.

The best and most favourite activity though was without doubt Splash Waterworld pictured below (courtesy of Butlin's website - better say I nicked it from there in case I am infringing any copyright)! Believe me it was nowhere near this empty during our stay Check out the boat going down the chute.

J and I went to Waterworld every day and queued for 40 mins+ each time just to get in the door. The pool was obviously, a heaving mass of humanity but had to be endured as J enjoyed it so much.

Splash Waterworld has a feature called The Master-blaster which is a chute with various twists; turns and what seem like vertical slopes. You ride through the chute on an inflatable boat and have to be 8 to qualify for it. Of course if you are under 8 and want to ride it (like J) then you have to take a suitable adult (that means Mug Mum) with you. After a 30+ minute wait you finally reach the front of the queue and climb in the boat with Mum sitting in the back.

“Don’t worry” said the Lifeguard with a reassuring smile the first time we climbed aboard, “if the boat stops en route just stay put and we’ll come and rescue you”! With this our boat was hauled to the edge of what seemed to me like a steep (vertical) drop and off we went.

J absolutely LOVED it and we did The Master-blaster again and again (complete with long queue). Our best time was 37.58 seconds and our worst 50.39 seconds. Competitive - moi?

Much of the time though was spent in the pool which was full of children with their parents who were mainly BBs and BBs (that’s Big Birds and Big Blokes). So J’s Daddy (who uses his weight as an excuse to NOT go into the swimming pool) will be made to attend next time so that he too can experience the heaving masses. Maybe he’ll enjoy The Master-blaster too – or how about the massive slide which J comes down in all manner of positions and with seemingly no sense of danger?

I have to confess to rather enjoying the slide myself – not as much as the Jacuzzi though – even J enjoyed that. I have to thank J here for finding 5 minutes of fascination with the Jacuzzi which allowed me to sit in blissful relaxation for that time before being hauled off to join the queue for The Master-blaster once more.

So we are home...and Lara’s report is here of which I will report more once I’ve had time to read and digest it. In the meantime here are a few more pictures of Butlins.

J enjoys the bike track - but at £1 a go he didn't spend too much time here much to his disgust,

The Merry Go Round was FREE though.

Thursday was a beautiful day and J spent time playing in the wooden play area pictured to the back of this photo. Meanwhile Mummy.....

...drank some Vodka but at £3.25 a bottle couldn't afford to get drunk!